Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Miami Herald
February 1, 2008 U.S. casualties rose in Iraq after falling for four months, but there were fewer deaths in Baghdad and Anbar province.
By Nancy A. Youssef
The U.S. death toll in Iraq increased in January, ending a four-month drop in casualties, and most of the deaths occurred outside Baghdad or the once-restive Anbar province, according to military statistics.
In all, 38 U.S. service members had been reported killed in January by Thursday, compared with 23 in December. Of those, 33 died from hostile action, but only nine of them in Baghdad or Anbar.
A total of 3,942 American service members have been killed in Iraq as of Thursday, according to icasualties.org, an independent website that tracks the statistics.
U.S. officials in Iraq said the death toll had risen because the military was targeting armed groups that had been driven out of Baghdad and Anbar by the increase in American troops.
In January, the military launched a major offensive in Diyala province, where nine service members were killed. In addition, the United States moved troops to the northwestern Ninevah province, which has become an al Qaeda in Iraq stronghold. Seven service members were killed there in January, compared with four in December.
The fact that more Americans have been killed in those provinces has some fretting that the United States is fighting another round of ''whack-a-mole,'' a term that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., once used to describe chasing insurgents and terrorists from one part of Iraq to another.
Others argue that the drop in American deaths in Baghdad and Anbar is evidence that al Qaeda in Iraq has been weakened, and that operations such as those in Diyala and Ninevah will weaken it further.
''Al Qaeda knows the surge is working,'' President Bush said Thursday in a speech in Las Vegas. ``They no longer have a safe haven in Anbar province; they're on the run.''
However, Pentagon officials have said that although al Qaeda in Iraq is weaker, they still don't know when they will be able to reduce the U.S. force in Iraq below the presurge level of about 140,000. U.S. commanders in Iraq are even more circumspect. Nearly all agree that al Qaeda in Iraq is weaker since the U.S. troop buildup began, but they caution that violence probably would return to places such as Baghdad and Anbar if U.S. troops left.
February 1, 2008 U.S. casualties rose in Iraq after falling for four months, but there were fewer deaths in Baghdad and Anbar province.
By Nancy A. Youssef
The U.S. death toll in Iraq increased in January, ending a four-month drop in casualties, and most of the deaths occurred outside Baghdad or the once-restive Anbar province, according to military statistics.
In all, 38 U.S. service members had been reported killed in January by Thursday, compared with 23 in December. Of those, 33 died from hostile action, but only nine of them in Baghdad or Anbar.
A total of 3,942 American service members have been killed in Iraq as of Thursday, according to icasualties.org, an independent website that tracks the statistics.
U.S. officials in Iraq said the death toll had risen because the military was targeting armed groups that had been driven out of Baghdad and Anbar by the increase in American troops.
In January, the military launched a major offensive in Diyala province, where nine service members were killed. In addition, the United States moved troops to the northwestern Ninevah province, which has become an al Qaeda in Iraq stronghold. Seven service members were killed there in January, compared with four in December.
The fact that more Americans have been killed in those provinces has some fretting that the United States is fighting another round of ''whack-a-mole,'' a term that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., once used to describe chasing insurgents and terrorists from one part of Iraq to another.
Others argue that the drop in American deaths in Baghdad and Anbar is evidence that al Qaeda in Iraq has been weakened, and that operations such as those in Diyala and Ninevah will weaken it further.
''Al Qaeda knows the surge is working,'' President Bush said Thursday in a speech in Las Vegas. ``They no longer have a safe haven in Anbar province; they're on the run.''
However, Pentagon officials have said that although al Qaeda in Iraq is weaker, they still don't know when they will be able to reduce the U.S. force in Iraq below the presurge level of about 140,000. U.S. commanders in Iraq are even more circumspect. Nearly all agree that al Qaeda in Iraq is weaker since the U.S. troop buildup began, but they caution that violence probably would return to places such as Baghdad and Anbar if U.S. troops left.